Internet trends report predicts that real-time entertainment applications will account for 55 to 60 percent of peak aggregate traffic by the end of this year

A study
of internet trends conducted by Sandvine has revealed that North American web
users have become increasingly interested in on-demand applications like
Netflix, and this enthusiasm for real-time entertainment categories will likely
continue to grow.

Sandvine is a provider of intelligent broadband network solutions for fixed and
mobile operators. It releases a Global Internet Phenomena Report annually, and
has done so since 2002. These reports analyze internet phenomena and traffic on
the web in North America, Latin America and Europe.

In the Global Internet Phenomena Report: Spring 2011, Sandvine found that Netflix is now 29.7
percent of peak downstream traffic in North America, and has become "the
largest source of internet traffic overall."

In 2009, real-time entertainment applications consumed 29.5 percent of peak
aggregate traffic, and today, that number has increased to 49.2 percent.
According to Sandvine's predictions, this category will account for 55 to 60
percent of peak aggregate traffic by the end of this year.

In Europe, real-time entertainment has steadily increased to 33.2 percent of
peak aggregate traffic from 31.9 percent in fall 2010, and BitTorrent
(peer-to-peer file sharing protocol) is the largest source of upstream internet
traffic at 59.7 percent and also downstream internet traffic at 21.6 percent.
The study reported that European subscribers consume twice the amount of data
as North Americans.

In Latin America, real-time entertainment accounts for 27.5 percent of peak aggregate
traffic. The report also found that social networking accounts for 14 percent
of network traffic, which is more traffic than
YouTube.

"The information and trends in Sandvine's Spring 2011 Global Internet
Phenomena Report emphasize the need for innovative solutions to keep up with
rapidly evolving consumer demands for content and connectivity," said Dave
Caputo, President and CEO of Sandvine. "The dramatic growth of Netflix and
its impending global expansion are prime examples of a growing appetite for
real-time entertainment. It is also important for fixed and mobile broadband
providers to have real-time policy control capability, made
possible by insightful business intelligence, in order to put sound strategic
decisions into action."

The Spring 2011 Global Internet Phenomena Report is based on anonymous and
voluntary data collected from mobile and fixed service provider networks in
North America, Europe and Latin America, and over 220 service provider
customers in over 85 countries.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Also in the method that they measure traffic. Apparently there have been widely ranged results in the total traffic of things like torrents and video streaming, all stemming from differing methods of measuring the traffic.